1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus and method for cleaning the pickup and feed rolls of machines such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines and the like.
2. Prior Art
Through continued use, the pickup and feed rolls of printers, copy machines, facsimile machines and the like will become soiled and will require cleaning. If the cleaning is not done, the machine will often misfeed or jam, requiring more extensive servicing. In general, the current method of cleaning pickup and feed rolls is by hand, utilizing a rag and cleaning solution. This manual method has the disadvantage of requiring a certain amount of disassembly of the specific machine, as well as requiring the user to handle cleaning solutions.
Several attempts have been made to design a roll cleaner to automatically clean the pickup and feed rolls of such machines. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,361 to Shinkai discloses a sheet for cleaning the surface of paper conveying rolls. The cleaning is performed by inserting the sheet into the facsimile apparatus. The sheet is divided into two halves which are conveyed through the conveying rolls. The front half of the sheet is impregnated with cleaning fluid and has sufficient compressibility so that when the impregnated sheet is clasped between the conveying rolls, the cleaning fluid is squeezed out onto the rolls. The rear half of the sheet is an absorbing sheet which absorbs the cleaning fluid which adheres to the surface of the rolls.
Similar to the Shinkai patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,265 to Samagalsky discloses a prepackaged sheet for cleaning the rolls of a facsimile machine. The absorbent sheet is of a suitable size and weight for passing through the facsimile machine and is impregnated with a cleaning fluid, for example isopropyl alcohol.
Both the Shinkai and the Samagalsky patents are specifically designed to feed through the machine being cleaned. This has the disadvantage of not necessarily providing a spinning action or relative movement between the roll being cleaned and the cleaning surface, resulting in ineffective cleaning. Additionally, the feeding of the cleaning sheet through the machine increases the likelihood of jamming of the machine by the cleaning sheet.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art. A further object of the present invention is to provide an efficient and cost-effective roll cleaning method and apparatus for cleaning the pickup and feed rolls of machines such as printers, copiers, facsimile machines and the like.